Vox Populi vs Bad Company

[PWXonline]

Street Fight Tag Team Match
Vox Populi (Elijah Black and Daniel Everett) vs Bad Company (Nighthawk and Jason Aries)

Deadline: 3-18-14 at Midnight CST


Story: Will be posted later tonight/tomorrow.

[Deleted]

“As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.“



As Nighthawk sits down on the weightlifting bench in the gym he keeps in the garage of his Chicago home, packing up his red-white-and-blue USA Wrestling gym bag for his trip to Canada where he will team with Jason Aries to face Elijah Black and Daniel Everett in a streetfight, we notice something different both about the way he is acting, and the things that he is packing in his bag. While under normal circumstances he would be packing wrestling trunks, wrestling boots, and other accoutrements in keeping with his profession, this week multiple rolls of hand tape, gauze bandages, and multiple bottles of Tylenol are finding their way into the gym bag of the Chicago native, perhaps as a silent admission to himself of what he expects to be happening.


But while the “Wrestling Machine” is mentally preparing for the very real possibility that he will return home with a multitude of bruises, and be in as much pain as he has been in for quite a long time, the way he is dealing with is also quite unique for the position that he finds himself in. While a street fight might very well cause him as much pain as any match that he has been in since his PWX arrival he’s not as nervous as you might expect him to be in this situation, and is looking at this not with abject fear or even nervousness but instead as a chance to finally give his two opponents the revenge that, in his mind at least, has been a long time coming.



But as the “Man of 1000 Holds” finishes packing up the gym bag, putting in several ice packs in the front pocket, the garage door slowly opens and a nervous-looking Sin walks in, taking one look at her husband before wrapping her arms tight around his upper chest. As she sits down and takes a look in the ice-blue eyes, apparently not liking what she sees there, she hugs her husband again.



(Author’s note: This conversation took place in Spanish.)


Sin, her voice on the verge of breaking: “Why, Tristan? Why are you going to do this? What about getting yourself involved in a streetfight with two men who would want nothing more than to hurt you, and hurt your tag team partner and your best friend? You’re not a superhero, Tristan. You’re not an immortal, or someone who can’t be hurt or feel pain. Do you hacve any idea of what this is going to do to you, Tristan? Any concept of what being in the middle of something like this is going to turn you into? Do you have any idea what you’re going to have to wade through, and become, in order to get out the other side? I don’t want that for you, and if you weren’t so utterly consumed by the need for revenge, I think you’d see that. I'll be here to patch you up and get you ready for the next thing that you have to do, but all that I really want to hear from you is the reason why. What in the world is making you do this?”



Nighthawk, his voice beginning to break too as trying to explain something as important as this to his wife is a tremendous strain: “I don’t want to be doing this, first of all. I didn’t wake up the day after the show, and want to get into a streetfight this week. But, as i am coming to understand, this is the only way that I can get this to end. Wrestling matches don’t do it anymore, and I'm not sure if they ever did. If I don’t fight them, Sin, the war never stops. The cheap shots, and the insults, don’t ever fade. You want to see it end, don’t you? My sister, I know for a fact, wants nothing more than to see this end. But as long as he can look at himself in the mirror and think that he sees someone he can push around, someone that isn’t as tough as him, then this keeps going on. This is a scar on my career, an annoying reminder of someone who just won’t leave me alone. Maybe this is the way to finish it, maybe it isn’t. I'm not quite sure. But I know that if I don’t try, I won’t be able to look at myself in the mirror the same way ever again. That’s why I'm doing it.”



Sin, hugging her husband: “You’re right, Tristan, because I want to see this end. I think everyone you know, everyone you could consider a friend or someone who cares about you, wants to see this end. But you have to ask yourself, before you wade into battle, one question: Is this the right thing to do? I can’t answer that for you, and even if I could, I don’t know if it would help like it needs to. You need to pray on it, think about it, and answer it for yourself. Is this really the right thing, or are you simply playing his game?”



Smiling, as though the answer to that particular question has just come to him, Nighthawk zips up his gym bad and moves to put it in his car, stopping to hug and kiss his wife as he does so.



The next morning…..



As Nighthawk pulls into a small chalet in a Montréal suburb, slowly grabbing his suitcase and gear bag, we see a strength and iron conviction, that if we are honest with ourselves, was not always there before. Clad in a black long-sleeved leather duster with a full-scale mural of the city of Chicago on the back and blue, orange, and silver piping up and down each one of the sleeves, a blue Superman t-shirt, black leather pants with blue and orange piping up and down each leg, and black work boots, the “Wrestling Machine” slowly closes his eyes as his voice thickens and cools, in the same way that ice does when it is freezing.



Nighthawk: “There are a lot of painful parts of my profession that I chose to accept as part of doing the thing that I wanted to do more than anything else. I accept the blood and the bruises, and the fact that my body will always hurt in places and ways that are as different from anything that can be shared by my high school and college graduating classes. But what I refuse to accept, what I will tolerate no longer, is the idea that the exploits of my family, of people who did not ask to be drawn into this thing, are somehow up for fair game. That is why this street fight, a match I would not be running to participate in under normal circumstances, is the last choice of action that I have left. And this week, when Jason Aries and I beat the two of you in the most brutal match that I will have had here in quite a long time, you’re going to understand what happens when someone’s family, someone’s sense of self, is assaulted.



But before I get to the men who I will make pay for that assault on everything my partner and I stand for, I want to offer something of a warning to the younger members of the PWX fan base. This will be ugly, and violent, and as brutal a match as I have been involved with in quite a long time. Jason Aries and I will most likely be bruised and bloody as you have ever seen us. So I beg of you, to all the younger fans of Bad Company, don’t watch this. This is not for you, not yet. Maybe someday, maybe when you’re older and you have things that are as important to you, you’ll understand why Jason Aries and I are doing the things we’re doing.



See, Elijah, I've been hearing the same speeches from you for months. they take the same tone, and end the same way. It’s constant talk about how you’re someone that people should idolize and appreciate, but at every turn, you preach to them about how you are their superior. Heroes do not do this, Elijah, at least not the sort of hero that you seem to indicate you want to be, Meanwhile, this puts the lie, of course, to what your actions say you are. Your actions say you are the sort of man who sees no problem with attempting to end another man’s career, and disfigure him in front of his family and friends. Your actions, the things you have chosen to do, say you’re the sort of man who sees no problem whatsoever with attacking someone when they’re down, and trading in the kind of lies and filth that I would expect from Lyndon LaRouche, not someone who claims to be the ‘last honest man in pro wrestling’. And this week in Montréal, Mr. Black, you and your protégé will go down to defeat. I can make that promise, and I will keep it with my last breath if that is what it takes.



And make no mistake about this, I truly do anticipate that doing this, that ending this, is going to require me to go to my last breath. But here’s the difference between Jason Aries and I, and you and your protégé Elijah. We took down the Establishment together. We beat the Knockout Kings together. As much as it pains me to admit it, we beat my students the Island Boys together. We know what it is, both alone and as a team, to suffer through pain to achieve an objective. And simply put, since we became a tag team, we’ve been living on another level, a higher level. Your protégé, talented though he is, isn’t ready for this level. He isn’t ready for what is in store for him in Montréal. And somewhere in that match, he’ll crumble, and he won’t be there when you need him. And when that happens, Jason Aries and I will bury you alive and this will end. Once and for all, it will be over.



And that, rather seamlessly, brings me to that aforementioned protégé, Mr. Daniel ‘The Punishment’ Everett. Mr. Everett, it wasn’t your mentor who said the words and started the brawl that led to this. It was you, who for reasons I neither care for or understand, decided to insult my father, which Elijah Black must have told you was a good idea. But you made a fatal mistake, Mr. Everett, and I will show you in great detail just how fatal it was this week. You see, Mr. Everett, you underestimate me. Even your mentor, a man who I am really looking forward to forearming into an alternate state of consciousness, is not foolish enough to deny that when I want to, and in your case I most definitely want to, I can knock a man stupid. And this week, Mr. Everett, I teach you a lesson your mentor apparently forgot to. There are some things, and some people, you just leave alone. Jason Aries and I are two of those people, and this week, you’ll figure that out.



You see, Mr. Everett, this isn’t a wrestling match. It could be, and it would probably be just fine, but for what this match needs to be, what it needs to signify, this is the last thing it can be. This needs to be brutal, and violent, and vicious. And quite frankly, you don’t have enough of a dog in this fight for you to be as motivated as you’ll need to be in order to see this through to its end. I can almost guarantee that. Jason Aries and I, on the other hand, do. In spades, we do. This has been down the pike for months now, and this week, it ends. That’s a promise. And believe me when I tell you, I always keep my promises.



Goodnight, Vox Populi. May sleep give you the courage to go on.”

[Elijah Black]

[We’re braving the cold on the cobbled streets around Bonsecours Market, where Daniel Everett is stood on his own clad in a desert camo gilet over a chunky black long sleeve shirt with a red bandana wrapped around the left sleeve as he faces the cold head-on – but, notably, on his own]

Everett: Yeah, anyone with a braincell going spare knows it’s cold in Canada, but you know what sort of person complains about the cold? Whiners. Complainers. People who have so much energy to say how much they don’t like something but are too goddamn lazy to do anything about it other than bitch and moan. It’s cold, so what, you adapt.

You know who else likes to whine and complain? Nighthawk.

I haven’t been hear long but I’ve heard a lot about how Nighthawk likes to bawl his eyes out so people are conned into feeling sorry for him, saying that his career is over because of a knee injury yet two weeks later he’s back in the ring with the crowd swallowing his bullshit hook, line and sinker. He’s manipulating you, yet the sheep that you are won’t dare consider the fact he is lying to you so your sympathy makes you go out and buy his t-shirt or poster or whatever shit you buy of his, and he’ll get a cut of that money and he’ll laugh at how he got his puppets to dance one more time. And because you danced to his tune, PWX think he’s a bigger star than he actually is so put him in a nice, comfortable spot with a nice, comfortable pay raise as a result.

So when I heard him bitch and piss about his father, I wasn’t buying it for a second. Everything that I’d been told about Nighthawk said that his father was alive and kicking, having to go into hospital to have an ingrown toenail removed, and I said as much to Nighthawk when I had the chance, and you saw what happened. He didn’t react on the spot, oh no, he waited a moment before suckerpunching someone whose back was turned. Yeah, that sounds like the actions of a guy who’s grieving – using it as an excuse to suckerpunch a guy who’s had your number for years – ignoring the fact that, last time we met up, I was the guy that beat your sorry ass. How’s it feel, Nighthawk, knowing that both Vox members can snap their fingers and find another way to beat you?

[Everett nods to camera, a smug look crossing his face]

Everett: But this time you brought a friend with you, someone else to share in your bullshit – and it’s bad luck for you that I’m also pretty damn knowledgeable about him, too.

Aries, you’ve butted heads with Elijah Black enough times that he can tell me a lot about you, how you think and how you operate, that I can make a pretty good guess what you’ll be thinking every second you’re in the ring – and that’s where you’re at a loss, because you don’t know jack about me so you’ll have to rely on nothing more than luck or your partner once again suckerpunching a guy when his back is turned. I’m the unknown quantity in this match, and from what I hear that’s a real disadvantage to you Aries because there’s a whole lot of things that you don’t know, such as when to stop talking or how you’re so ignorant of what the word “respect” means…

[At this point, Elijah Black saunters into shot carrying a couple of cups of coffee, handing one to Everett]

Black: You holding the fort okay?

Everett: Yeah.

Black: You okay with me taking over.

[Everett pauses to think about it]

Everett: Be my guest.

[Black takes a sip of coffee, before stepping towards the camera and adjusting his pea coat]

Black: As my confederate probably told you, if there’s one thing that the Vox knows it’s this: how to beat Nighthawk. I’ve done it so many times already, solo or with a partner, with titles on the line or pride, that it’s almost become a habit to me, and it seems my habit has passed on to Daniel as he popped his Nighthawk-beating cherry a few weeks ago at Hostile Takeover IV.

On the one hand you could say that we’re that one blind spot he has, no matter what he does he can’t quite find a way to get that victory that would get the monkey off his back and allow him to keep up his pretence of living in PWX’s ivory tower – whether Zion or Hollywood want a lodger or not. But maybe, just maybe, it could be that he has a way about him that inspires both myself and Everett to make damn sure he won’t get the best of us. Case in point, last week Daniel said certain things about his father, and Nighthawk’s response was to wait for my back to be turned before aiming a forearm at the back of my head like the hero he so obviously is. Your beef wasn’t with me, I was trying to contain the situation, yet I was the one you attacked – so don’t play the victim card with either of us, because what you did was as cold and as calculated as any of the other occasions where you have manipulated the situation to suit your agenda.

Everett: And I want proof that your old man is dead, rather than you pretending he is to gain sympathy…

[Black holds up a hand to cut Everett off]

Black: The truth that you are so intent on hiding is that if we’re the bad guys, then your definition of what it means to be “good” is bordering on the psychotic. We don’t scheme, we don’t calculate, and we certainly don’t toy with the emotions of the fans on a whim – the fact is that both of us will look anyone in the eye and be straight with them, and if they have a problem with that…well, they have a problem.

The problem you have, Nighthawk, is that you have become consumed with this idea that no matter how many times I do that little bit more to get yet another one over you, or how you critically misjudged the abilities of Daniel Everett last month, you still cling to the idea that you are the great white hope of everything that is pure and white, and no matter how often you spin that fantasy there has never been any proof to back it up. Can you string a few moves together in the ring? Yeah…and? You may have talent, but having talent doesn’t mean there isn’t a dark side to your soul that poisons your mind from time to time. People with talent have always had a dark side, the difference is whether they can control it and keep their humanity in check or they become consumed by it and are led to their own downfall…and that’s the road you’re on, Nighthawk, consumed by a need to tell everyone how you are the better man but never acting like you are for a moment.

[Black pauses, as something comes to mind]

Black: Of course, we are in Montreal, a city with a well-deserved reputation for people getting what they want at any cost no matter who they have to screw in order to get it.

This does, however, beg the question just how low Nighthawk wishes to sink in order to get the result he wants no matter what. I mean, if he was the saviour, the white knight, the force for good and all that crap he’d obviously rise above it…but given he’s implying that I suggested that my confederate insult his father, just to imply he’s dumb muscle or something, that shows he’s already up to his usual tricks.

Everett: Tells me that he preaches respect, but he’s as stupid as his partner when it comes to knowing what the damn word means.

Do you see either of us implying that your partner is too dumb to say or do anything without your say-so? No, you see us say your partner is dumb because he’s shown everyone how dumb he is when he runs his mouth and it costs him, but he never learns from his mistakes and he just keeps making them. And that’s what makes a guy stupid: making the same mistake, time and time again, never learning anything else and having a dumb look on his face when he falls short. Again.

[Everett snorts with derision]

Black: The fact is that the tag team grand prix final is coming up, and if you’d been paying attention you’d notice something: with all the questions about whether we were rightful top seeds, we have proven those doubts wrong in a short space of time by going out there and showing what we are capable of, and right now we are focused.

The two of us know this match won’t be the final for the tag team grand prix, but we do know that it’s the opportunity to prove once again we are top seeds for a reason, that our progress has been deserved, and most of all it will put us in the spotlight as we show we can defeat one of the teams we will be meeting in the finals – because to some of the fanbase, a win over you two means something, even though to us it’s already becoming something of a standard operating procedure.

Best of all, we’ve got the so-called “purist” of PWX in a match where exchanging wristlocks isn’t going to amount to much, as a street fight means that anything goes, so those 1000 holds of yours are suddenly less viable than if this were an actual tag match.

Everett: You know what else? I hate brawling. Any no-talent hack can brawl, any no-talent hack can swing a chair at their opponent, but I am better than that – so for you to demand this kind of match, you’re just asking to get on my bad side, and that’s not a good place for you to be because PWX hasn’t scratched the surface of what I am capable of doing with little more than my fists - and your face.

Black: But maybe that’s your plan all along, draw all the attention to yourself and spare Aries the worst of the punishment, keeping him fresh enough to sneak up on either of us to snatch an undeserved victory. It is quite out of character for him not to be making an ass out of himself with every other word…and that’s me being polite.

See, your problem is you keep making promises but you don’t live up to them. You were promising to take down Daniel Everett a few weeks back, and not only is he still standing but he put you firmly into the ground to remind those who pay attention what your word is worth.

We don’t make promises, Nighthawk, we set the agenda – and the agenda for Montreal is to give you and Aries a sneak-preview of what you will be up against when the tag titles are on the line, which will also serve as a reminder or what happened when you faced myself and Nightmare half a dozen times in a row. And while this is happening, we are going to look you in the eye as we hit you, paying you the sort of courtesy that you did not pay me last week in the vain hope that you will realise the error of your double standards.

You may be upset because the memory of your father was disrespected, but the fact is you disrespect the intelligence of everyone by making out that you are the good guy in this, and that means you deserve everything that is going to happen to you as a result. So maybe it’s time you took the longest sleep that you can, and leave the honest people to get on with their honest work.

[FTB]

[Jason Aries]

The scene opens on a quiet side street in Montreal as the camera is set up in the middle of the street we see a figure approaching off in the distance. The figure finally gets close enough that we can see it is Jason who is in a bad company hoodie with the hood up and windsuit pants. The expression on his face is one of a man who is ready to go to war as he notices the camera. He stops and glares in to the camera as we can tell the thoughts are just racing through his head.

“Street fights are something that are usually used to end things to bring things to a climax if you will but at the end of the day this war has just begun. I hear the rumblings Bad Company are they in over their heads they are a pure wrestling tag team. The world looks at Night Hawk and myself and they see us as a dying breed they see us as pure wrestlers nothing more. I love that feeling though I love it because that is what I have strived to be one of the best pro wrestlers. The truth is though the both of us can become more brutal and more violent than anyone could ever imagine. The question is not wither Bad Company is ready the question is are Elijah Black and Daniel Everett ready for Bad Company.”

He clinches his fists as the camera watches on he brings them up almost looking at them as he knows what he is going to have to use them for. He puts them back down to his sides as he puts his focus back on the camera and continues speaking.

“Elijah Black you are a former world champion at one time considered the best in the world and this is what you have become this is how you conduct yourself? I am disgusted by what you have done I have spent months traveling the roads with Night Hawk I know what his father’s legacy means to him. I may not like you but I did respect you and I never thought even you would be this classless. I never thought someone could go this low but your day is coming. I am going to stand back and I am going to watch as the world finds out what happens when you cross Night Hawk. I have beat you myself once before but at the end of the day this is a war you’re going to regret starting.”

He takes his focus off the camera for a few moments as he looks past it as he seems to be in deep thought as he seems to be trying to collect his thoughts. He waits a few more moments and then a glare back in to the camera and continues to speak.

“Daniel Everett you seem to be the man who is doing nothing but following the lead of the man who is teaching the ropes of this business well welcome to how dangerous that is. I know next to nothing about you and the truth is your about to get an up close look at who we are. The world see’s what you’re trying to do your trying to make a name for yourself but we will show you the true violence of this sport. I can promise you there is nothing you’re going to be able to do as you watch your teacher be destroyed in the ring. I truly hope you have a grasp on what this match is truly going to be because behind the curtain of wrestlers are two men who can break you just like that. I look forward to watching you try to prove something and then failing miserably right at your teacher’s side.”

A more intense look seems to be coming across his face as he just glares in to the camera as his eyes look like two black holes as he keeps focus. He then collects his thoughts as he does he then finally once again continues to speak.

“I could keep talking but to be honest the time for talking has come and gone and it seems to me the both of you don’t have much to say. The silence that has overcome the both of you will be drowned out by your own screams as we stretch muscles and send bones to the breaking point. The wrestling world is expecting us to be at a disadvantage but in the end you better not bet against the both of us. I am more than ready to sacrifice my body and to bleed buckets are you? I have been saying for months that Night Hawk and myself are the best in the world. Elijah Black and Daniel Everett as I always say your going to find out what it’s like to be in the presence of bad company. “

He walks past the camera as it watches him walk away the scene slowly comes to an end.